Carlos Alcaraz easily overcame the challenge from Stefanos Tsitsipas winning 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 to reach the semi-final where he faces new world number one Jannik Sinner in a blockbuster showdown scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Despite a second set wobble where he was a break up and cruising towards a two sets lead, he easily won the tie-break and wrapped up the contest in just two hours and fifteen minutes. Alcaraz now has a 6-0 head-to-head record against Tsistipas and unless the Greek can overcome his mental barriers and find ways to combat the Spaniard’s superior ball-striking ability, this match-up will continue to be one-sided and never develop into a rivalry.
“I think it was a really good match. I played great,” said Alcaraz afterwards. “I think there weren’t up and downs in my game. I controlled very well my emotions, myself on the court. I was really calm in the moments I had to be and I’m really happy with the way that I managed everything, the way that I played and to play a semifinal here again in Roland-Garros.”
Wimbledon champion Alcaraz backed up his pre-match confidence where he spoke bullishly about facing the ninth seed and took his opponent’s game apart by breaking serve four times, and winning an excellent 74% of points behind his first serve. Alcaraz got off to a flyer and broke serve immediately before holding for 2-0. But Tsitsipas was always behind in the set and couldn’t get to grips with Alcaraz’s high bouncing forehands which took an even greater dimension on the drier faster centre court surface. Losing just four points on his serve, he closed out the first set in a little over half an hour.
Things went from bad to worse in the second as he once again fell 3-0 down but at 30-30 in the next game he finally looked towards the crowd for some extra energy after winning a beautiful rally. He staged a determined comeback from 4-1 down to take the contest into a tie-break where he had a genuine chance to level the match but instead Alcaraz dominated play and raced to a 5-1 lead courtesy of some “extra grunting” on a forehand winner.
The Greek protested to the chair umpire on the changeover knowing full well Alcaraz was walking past and could hear his complaints, but the Spaniard chose to smile realising he had got his opponent right where he wanted, and took the set shortly afterwards.
The third set was more competitive and went with serve for the first six games but Alcaraz constructed the baseline points better and carried on targeting the Tsitsipas backhand with continued success. And then with the scores locked at 3-3, the Greek threw in his worst game of the match with two unforced errors coupled with two double faults to throw away the break and any hopes of a comeback.
Alcaraz, the 2022 US Open winner, shows no further injury concerns to his right arm which is still wrapped in a compression sleeve. He now has two days off and is feeling fresh and full of energy and is arguably the favourite for the title, but next faces his most serious challenge yet as he takes on Australian Open champion Sinner, who came through in straight sets against Grigor Dimitrov.
Looking ahead to Friday’s clash, he said: “It’s a really difficult challenge. Right now, he’s the best player in the world, or the player who is playing the best tennis right now. What can I say about him? We’ve played great matches … high level, and I’m glad to have him in the tour at this level. Thanks to him, I push myself to be better, to be a better player, to give my 100 per cent every day, to wake up in the morning and want to improve my game to try to beat him. I love watching him play, as well. I’m ready to take that challenge. It is the match that everybody wants to watch, and I’m sure he’s going to show his best tennis – myself, as well, and we’re going to see who’s going to win.”
